Kabatic Winds at John Rylands

Under a marvellously vaulted ceiling and the squinting gaze of stone
griffins and assorted mythical creatures, we scratch on paper in
silence. Not with quills though it feels as if we might be. Circles
in the stained glass windows look like stacked bottles, a greenish
light pooled in each centre. A December afternoon hums around us in
the Gothic sanctuary of the John Rylands Library.

We are gathered for a Polar Poets writing workshop, preceding our evening performance. Inspiration comes from polar travellers, images of blue ice cliffs, orca whales and the inevitable white bears. And our imaginings of the 'White South within us all'
are grounded by the dark varnished oak table we press on. This is the kind of library where explorers once sketched out expeditionary
mission statements and consulted unfinished charts of 'Terra
Incognita', our theme for today.

Our workshop participants, who have never been near Antarctica, were
surprised to discover what vivid sense they had of the white
continent. The poems and prose they wrote in that wood-panelled room
could have come from the pens of Shackleton's men. We also created a
collective poem titled 'Frozen Planet', drawing on images from
a stunning BBC series and from a 'palette' of Arctic words. It was
the more unfamiliar words, like frazil ice and sastrugi,
that most caught the imagination and kabatic winds evoked a
powerful response, howling through the cloistered hush around us.

We were delighted to then perform our show 'Arctic-ulate'
in the intimate space of this Potteresque room at night. The JRL
librarians set things up beautifully with a wide-screen TV for our
projected images and a circle of chairs brought our audience close up to the action. As we roved on reindeer migrations or Viking
explorations and watched for northern lights, undoubtedly they came with us. There was also a lively Q & A session afterwards
focusing on our own travels and how we responded to the Arctic
environment as poets.

Never mind that it was rain rather than snow that lashed down on
Manchester that night. For those escaping the mayhem of a city in the
throes of Christmas shopping, our programme had a very seasonal
appeal. And it was particularly heart-warming to perform our 'winter
tales' at John Rylands once again. Librarians are the best hosts and
we were made so welcome, thanks especially to Jacqui and John. The
building as ever worked its magic and the gargoyles have not lost
their bite.

Polar Poets at Saltaire

The Polar Poets were delighted to make an appearance this month in the picturesque Salt Building in Saltaire. And the September sunshine did buff up that golden stone beautifully.

We were performing our show Arctic-ulate for the British Science Festival but managed to combine this with an event at the annual festival in Saltaire, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

A few snaps from our album will show you what we got up to. Here we've arrived early for our technical set-up - the car boot stacked with lap-top, projector, cables, screen, Cd player, tripod etc. And then there were the props! Though the heat made woolly hats and Arctic costumes out of the question ...

It was lovely to be working together again and the Salt Cafe proved an ideal venue with a decent stage area and excellent acoustics.

Our 'multi-media' show 'Arctic-ulate', is inspired by our travels to the Arctic and weaves story, music, poems and images together in a performance that takes our audience on a journey to polar regions and even out to space ...

For us as poets, it's great to be able to play with two voices and bring to life some of the characters and even arctic creatures of our poems. We were lucky to have a very warm and enthusiastic audience at Saltaire. In our final question and answer session, there were questions about the effects of climate change on reindeer, what it felt like to stand at the crater of an Icelandic volcano and what can we learn from the mini-Ice Age of the sixteenth century - we love it when we get out audience thinking!

So far, many of our shows seem to have been performed in the steamy heat of summer - or what's left of it. But we're looking forward enormously to a December outing for our next gig and a return to the gorgeously Gothic John Ryland Library in Manchester. Autumn is already nibbling around the edges. I'm just waiting for those first fingers of frost pinching the cheeks some morning soon ...

Poles Apart Poetry

There's been a long radio silence on this blog from the two poles of Leicester and Cardiff that the Polar Poets hail from. A posting is long overdue. And far from our venture having perished in the white-out, we have been incredibly busy in our separate corners. Writing new works. Performing. Telling stories.

So you can see above several events we've booked booked into diaries for later this year. Meanwhile, this very week Susan has launched a new collection inspired by notions of the North and illustrated by print-maker Pat Gregory. Where the Air is Rarified is published by Cinnamon Press. And you can catch more piccies of Susan's launch on her website.

More very exciting news from Susan is her imminent trip to Svalbard. Living up to the title Polar Poet, she has won funding to undertake a writing trip this summer - so expect to hear more from her about this expedition to the icy wilderness - real polar bear country!

For myself, I've been beavering away on a new collection too. Inspired by Susan's wonderful poems about Scott of Antarctica, I've spent months out on the sea-ice lost in my imagination. My new collection is a sequence about Shackleton's Endurance voyage to Antarctica in 1914. And the proofs for this new chapbook, 'Mad, Hopeless & Possible', to be published by Original Plus press, reached me this week. So by the time Susan and I perform together again after the summer, we will have much news to swap and two new books for the table.

Check out our sister websites for more details but I promise, there'll be more updates here too.